We Design Beirut ( May 23 – 26, 2024) is a platform dedicated to showcasing the very best of Arab and regional design. The event aims to celebrate and promote design and creativity through a rich and impactful multidisciplinary program that aims not only to showcase the very best and most innovative design creativity and talent, but to also create a global dialogue on design and sustainability that will translate to a network and eventually an ecosystem that would benefit everyone involved.
Read MoreArtisans, Architecture and City installations, We design Beirut is set to open it’s first edition this May inviting a global audience to present and preserve design from the Levantine. We spoke to the founder Mariana Wehbe, about her vision for the event.
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The 25Hours Hotel in Florence meticulously manifests the philosophy that travelling is a portal of endless discovery. A series of concept hotels in cities like Zurich, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Munich, and Dubai, the 25Hours Hotels are designed in an individualistic way and exude a unique charm.
When visiting Qatar, do not let preconceived notions or lazy assumptions stop you from visiting the souk. Souks across the Middle East are the oldest known marketplaces in the world and even today hold immense importance as a historical epicentre. Qatar is the eminent point of East-meets-West; with its map resembling the shape of a hand, it holds together both the worlds and transcends through time, melting the old and the new.
Read MoreLa Casa Azul or The Blue House was where Frida Kahlo was born, lived most of her life, and also died in. She stood by her home, her country all her life and chose to rest where she was born, which is an admirable trait. A person can be born at one place. However, s/he may die several times elsewhere; in heartbreak, in trauma, in oppression. Reading about Frida’s life, how difficult it was since the beginning and how it never came to be easy till her last breath, those words came to life while visiting her house.
Read MoreEmma Boomkamp’s studio gives away a sense of curious juxtaposition in just a single glance. Even before you have started exploring, studying her wide range of craft work, it is a space that commands attention, demanding that the viewer follow the lines, patterns, and layout of her designs like a traveller hiking through a forest trails born out of human footfall.
Read MoreThe term ‘symbolism’ traces its origin from the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, prominently his Les Fleurs du mal. As a literary movement, it flourished in late 19th century Europe and was soon incorporated in painting, architecture, and other mediums. As an art movement, it followed a distinct pathway and revived a romantic tradition rooted in mysticism, metaphors, and mythology. The European symbolic art movement emerged as an interesting interplay between ambiguity and intuitions, imagery and metaphors.
Read MoreCraft is as old as human time, a practice which is deeply entwined in our daily lives and speaks for our unique place in the sentient world. There is a fundamental need in humankind to not only form functional objects using materials sourced from the local environment but to consciously create objects of decorative beauty. Archeologists have attributed finds of textile weaving to the Paleolithic Era as far back as 27,000 years ago, and pottery shards, stone tools, coins, jewellery and basketry unearthed at digs across the world reveal a great deal of information about these ancient civilisations.
Read MoreOne of the greatest allures of nature is its endless bequeathals that clothe our bodies and adorn our homes. In the rugged mountainous state of Oaxaca, the southern Mexican home to various indigenous groups of people, the craft of textile-making is an ode to nature and the intricate relationship of the indigenous communities with natural resources.
Read MoreWhile bathhouses and sweat lodges have a long association with purification ceremonies in human civilization, the temazcal is a distinct practice loaded with symbolic and spiritual connotations. From ancient Rome to Edo Japan, these cloistered spaces were privy to individual customs and social traditions.
Read MoreIn Oaxaca, food is an integral part of the community and grown entirely in the countryside. Like everything about the culture there, food evokes a sense of passion that transcends the immediate anthropological language it provides. Food is the very essence of transcendence, actually. If you visit the homes of the common people, like we did, you will see women of the households spending hours and hours in the kitchen, all in the name of preparing the daily meals.
Read MoreLooking at contemporary creative cultures in Mexico City
Read MoreWabi sabi is a worldview and philosophy with origins in Japan. It is a concept that embraces the perfection of imperfections, finding beauty in simplicity and experiencing the spiritual richness in what is. It is through this aesthetic that one is inspired to experience tranquillity, inner spaciousness, and harmony with nature.
Read MoreKavita Parmar is the Founder and Creative Director of The IOWEYOU Project focused on producing unique, handmade apparel based on handwoven fabrics from India as well as the Curator of XTANT that brings the best of the world textile makers under one roof. Her understanding of traditional textiles with a cultural context makes her practice unique and exciting at the same time. We had the pleasure to speak to her and understand her thought process on textiles from Mexico and India.
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